1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a method and means to assist breathing for both humans and some animals.
2. Discussion of Prior Art
The problem to which this invention is directed is the same problem as that set out in U.S. Pat. No. 5,533,499 which is directed to a nasal dilator which assists in resisting the drawing together of outer wall tissue of the nasal passage during breathing.
It is known that air passing through a nasal passage will, especially where that passage is other than circular, cause a drawing together of the closer walls through a bernoulli effect. This implicitly causes a further narrowing of the passageway. This effect is known to occur with many people. The result is that they may suffer sufficiently substantial restriction in passage cross sectional area that they can be forced to breathe additionally through their mouth or suffer effects such as snoring and even sleep apnoea. In other cases athletes can have their breathing restricted by this effect so limiting their performance.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,533,499 proposes a flexible strip which traverses from one side of the nose across the bridge of the nose to the other side and so that one end adheres to the skin adjacent one nasal passage and another end adheres to the skin adjacent the other nasal passage. The flexible strip has two resilient bands these being chosen so that they naturally spring apart and drag the skin and therefore the outer wall tissue outwardly to keep the respective passages more open.
An alternative system has a bifurcate arrangement which has respective legs in the respective nostrils and by, again, a natural springing apart, keeps the outer walls of the nose outwardly distended but from an inside of the nasal passageway.
I have found that the existing methods have disadvantages which can be reduced.
One of these is that the flexible strip traversing the bridge of the nose will be implicitly visible and many are concerned by the appearance of this when being worn.
Further, the application of such a device will generally result in a continuous pulling pressure being applied so that the soft flesh of the nose will be under this continuous force. This can result over time in lack of comfort and possibly pain.